TheGreenButton - Windows Media Center Forums

We are looking to replace a Verizon FiOS STB with a Windows 7 PC using a new Ceton InfiniTV4 PCIe tuner (yes, it was sealed inside its box!).

Trouble is, the Digital Cable Advisor will not run. When I click on its icon in the Extras Gallery, I get an error message that says:
[yes, with two double quotes and nothing inside them]

I've managed to get most of the channels to play except HBO; even other pay channels run OK.

Tried downloading the DCA from Microsoft directly and ran the installer -- no luck.

When I go to Settings --> TV --> TV Signal --> Activate Digital Cable, WMC claims that "Your computer is not digital cable ready. You will not be able to set it up for use with a CableCARD." However, the CableCARD did activate successfully online with Verizon and the Ceton Diagnostics can tune just fine to any channel number I enter, but we can't watch HBO.

The PC is from 2009 and was last used in 2016, but it was brought back into service last week for this purpose, and it's up to date with Windows patches. It sports a brand-new Nvidia GTX 1050; I did all the hardware upgrading before installing the Ceton and CableCARD or launching WMC.

What else can I try? Have I missed a step somewhere?

Figured it out!!

What happened (I think) was that I was looking at the DCA icon in the Extras Gallery, but it was the DCA icon in the Extras Library that I needed to click on. Once I discovered that, WMC reported that my PC was Digital Cable Ready and began the CableCARD activation process. Because I'd already entered the card's info earlier, I skipped that step, went into live TV, tuned to HBO, and -- presto! -- it showed up on the screen.

Problem solved -- whew!!

Congrats! Just in case you don't know, the only channels on FiOS that are copy-once (DRM protected) are all the HBO and Cinemax channels and all the Fox owned cable networks (Fox News, Fox Business, FX, FXX, NatGeo, Fox Movie, Fox Sports, BTN). All other channels are unprotected, including the other premium movie channels like Showtime, Starz, Epix, etc.

You can also install ServerWMC https://serverwmc.github.io/ on your Win7/wmc box and use RaspberryPi's in place of FiOS STB's.

If you enjoy FiOS music channels (We do). Setup a headless RaspberryPi with HiFiBerry DAC Digi (Toslink) connected to AMP. Control it from your phone. Also has Airplay.

Space wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:56 pm Congrats! Just in case you don't know, the only channels on FiOS that are copy-once (DRM protected) are all the HBO and Cinemax channels and all the Fox owned cable networks (Fox News, Fox Business, FX, FXX, NatGeo, Fox Movie, Fox Sports, BTN). All other channels are unprotected, including the other premium movie channels like Showtime, Starz, Epix, etc.

Thanks, I didn't know that. Surprising that Showtime and Starz wouldn't be protected, but I won't submit a complaint.

toshfive wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:43 am You can also install ServerWMC https://serverwmc.github.io/ on your Win7/WMC box and use RaspberryPi's in place of FiOS STB's.

If you enjoy FiOS music channels (We do). Setup a headless RaspberryPi with HiFiBerry DAC Digi (Toslink) connected to AMP. Control it from your phone. Also has Airplay.

Huh, that's interesting. Did they really find a way around the WMC limitation on sharing recordings with other computers? I remember back when we started considering WMC, one of the first few things I learned was that you could stream to extenders but not to other PCs.

I've been using RaspberryPi 3's running LibreELEC (OS) & Kodi https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/raspberry-pi-3-3/ since Pi 2's.

You can also install Kodi on non WMC computers, Apple, MS, even Linux systems (What I use)

Raspberry's can still work without WMC, epg comes from Silicondust app within Kodi.

Once you setup Channel Group in Kodi, you'll only see the channels, with icons, you actually watch.

If you haven't already, install HD Home run app on your phone.

Old video, but shows how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQt_C_ ... HH0vwuJASw

Joram wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:00 am

toshfive wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 4:43 am You can also install ServerWMC https://serverwmc.github.io/ on your Win7/WMC box and use RaspberryPi's in place of FiOS STB's.

If you enjoy FiOS music channels (We do). Setup a headless RaspberryPi with HiFiBerry DAC Digi (Toslink) connected to AMP. Control it from your phone. Also has Airplay.

Huh, that's interesting. Did they really find a way around the WMC limitation on sharing recordings with other computers? I remember back when we started considering WMC, one of the first few things I learned was that you could stream to extenders but not to other PCs.

As long as it is not DRM channel it will work.

Funny thing i been doing this for a few years with my OTA channels. Just found 3 new channels they work find in WMC but nolonger work in KODI with ServerWMC because they are DRM channels OTA.
Thats all i need for all the OTA channels to start using DRM.